Box Tops for Education

Vegetable Gardening Tips

A few folks on the Box Tops team are avid gardeners, some of us are just getting started. Does anyone have some tips they'd like to share about what's a reasonable size vegetable garden to start with and what some of the easier vegies to grow are?

RE: Vegetable Gardening Tips

Good starters would be tomatoes, (Early Girl and Celebrity are good tomatoes and Kentucky Wonder is a good pole bean) pole beans and peppers (hot & sweet, I dearly love jalapenos), maybe also a couple of hills of yellow squash.  Be sure to rotate the crops to different areas of the garden each year.  If you live on a lot, a 400/500 square foot bed could fit on most side or back yards.  The most important tip I can give you is to contact your local County Agent for expert advice as to the vegetables to plant and the time tables for planting, etc.  The County Agent should also be able to have a sample of your soil tested.  This is a must, as you have to know the PH of the soil and adjust it for good plant growth.  Your County Agent will have all the info you need to accomplish this.  You will find that the County Agent will become your best friend in this endeaver.  Of course you will need a tiller to turn the soil.  *(Not inexpensive)  Another tip is to save all your yard clippings in an out of the way place in the yard and make a compost pile with them.  Next spring spread them on the garden site and plow them in.  Do this each year and follow your County Agent's advice (pamphlets) and your garden will quickly become the talk of the neighborhood. 

I'm sure your growing season is over for this year so maybe you should concentrate on developing the garden for next year.  Select the spot, till it, mulch it, apply lime as per County Agent instructions, and turn that under.  Spread compost and till it again next spring.  Although now you could try some peppers or cherry tomatoes in five gallon cans with miracle grow potting mix (just to get the hang of things and be sure to drill holes in the cans for drainage).  These can be moved into an enclosed area should it frost.

Gardening is a very rewarding hobby if one knows what to do and the County Agent is the key.    

RE: Vegetable Gardening Tips

I would fall under "novice" gardener for vegetables. I grow lots of herbs successfully, and have moderate success with tomatoes in pots -- which I can move around the yard as the sun changes through the season. But I don't know what "BEAN POLES" are? That sounds like I could manage that if its something that grows UP and doesnt' take a lot of area.

Most of my yard is shade - and I'm a budding expert in that area! I have probably 15-20 varieties of hosta, several ferns, many astilbe and have even let my husband into my "area" to plant a pine tree or two for texture!

RE: Vegetable Gardening Tips

Burchmies:

I would fall under "novice" gardener for vegetables. I grow lots of herbs successfully, and have moderate success with tomatoes in pots -- which I can move around the yard as the sun changes through the season. But I don't know what "BEAN POLES" are? That sounds like I could manage that if its something that grows UP and doesnt' take a lot of area.

Most of my yard is shade - and I'm a budding expert in that area! I have probably 15-20 varieties of hosta, several ferns, many astilbe and have even let my husband into my "area" to plant a pine tree or two for texture!

 

Pole beans are commonly called snap beans.  The bean pod generally grows to 6" to 8" long.  The plant is a vine,  It will grow nicely up a stake and is very easy to grow.  Take four stakes about 6' to 7 ' long and place them in tilled ground in the shape of a square.  Tie them together near the top so they form a tepee like shape.  Plant two to three bean seeds at the base of each stake.  I generally have four tepees of beans in my garden and they produce enough to feed the neighborhood and have several quarts left over for freezing.  One tip...when the crop comes in, harvest the beans early and often (like almost daily).  If they mature on the vine they become stringy and tough.  You really need a space that will get about six hours of direct sunlight each day for best growth.   

RE: Vegetable Gardening Tips

There is so much you can learn (that folks love to share) just by asking your neighbors.  I had NO experience with gardening at all, so I needed all the basics (i.e. garden location, to fence-in or not, the easy to grow & the not so easy, etc.).  If I hadn't had asked my neighbors for their advice, I probably would not have made the attempt.  I had a beautiful garden last year, unfortunately the Northeast has gotten way too much rain and the garden is really hurting.  I may make an attempt at some late-season planting, just to entend the season a bit longer, wish me luck neighbor